[mdog17]

Hi,

I opened up my computer this morning and after it was all done starting up, I realized that some program icons (on the desktop and the Program Files List) were replaced by the icon that looks like the DAT file icon. Some of the icons affected were MSN Messenger, All of the Microsoft Office Icons (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc), My Dell CD-burning software.

The weird thing was that when you click on the Icons, the programs run normally, so it seems that just the icons were affected. So I proceeded to try and manually change the icons for these programs back to their original.

But when I right-clicked on the application icon and chose "Change Icon", and error message popped up that said that a certain shell file in the System32 folder was missing.

Don't know what that really means, so any advice would be much appreciated,

Thanks in Advance

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Follow the steps below:
Start->Run. Type cmd. Press Enter.
In the Command-Prompt Window, type sfc /SCANONCE. Press Enter.
Follow the instructions by the System File Checker.
(Note:The scan will done on next reboot, so u will be prompted for a reboot.)

[darth_ash]

Follow the steps below:
Start->Run. Type cmd. Press Enter.
In the Command-Prompt Window, type sfc /SCANONCE. Press Enter.
Follow the instructions by the System File Checker.
(Note:The scan will done on next reboot, so u will be prompted for a reboot.)

[mdog17]

Sorry to reply late, but it took me a while to find my windows XP CD (which was needed for the system file checker to check the files).

It completed the check and that was it. I restarted my computer but I still have the same problem. I am missing the same icons, but the programs still run.

I even tried downloading IconPackager to see if that would help me get my icons back, but it didnt work.

Anything else I can try?


Thanks in advance

[darth_ash]

Follow the steps below:

• In your BIOS set CD-ROM has 1st Boot Device.
• Insert XP Setup CD, to boot from CD.
• After the intial loading of drivers is over, on the Welcome to Setup Screen with 3 options; Press R key, to "Repair XP installtion using Recovery Console".
• On the next screen you will be asked to choose your Windows installtion, choose the one that is causing the problem by typing the number beside it.
• Now you will be prompted for the password of Administrator, enter it; If password is blank, just press <enter>.
  
• Below are two ways to recover from this problem from the Recovery Console, use any one of them.
  Use Method1 only if u downloaded and installed SP2.
  Use Method2 if u have installed SP2 from CD and u have the CD; or if u have'nt installed SP2 at all.
• Method1:
  Type the following commands:
  cd \WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386
  copy shell32.dll c:\Windows\System32.
• Method2:
  Type the following command:
  expand x:\i386\shell32.dl_ c:\windows\system32\shell32.dll.
  (where x: the drive-letter of ur CD-ROM drive and c: is the partition where XP was installed)

[mpy]

If that doesn't work you can try re-installing the programs

[mdog17]

Hey Darth Ash,

I booted from CD and went to the recovery console and when I typed what you told me (I downloaded SP2, so I did method 1) , it said that "file cannot be found".

So I decided to go looking for this shell32.dll file myself in windows explorer. I booted the system normally. I found that the file on the XP cd is located in D:\I386\ SHELL32.DL_ and that I have 2 shell32.dll files, one in C:\WINDOWS\System32\ and one in C:\i386\

I was wondering which one is which and how should i proceed?

thanx

[darth_ash]

If shell32.dll is present in C:\WINDOWS\System32\, that means it must be the shell.dll (note: no 32) that is missing.
Below is the modified Method1 for Recovery Console, follow it:
cd \i386
copy shell.dll c:\Windows\System32

Edited by darth_ash, 31 August 2005 - 07:40 AM.

[Johanna]

There is a "repair icon" function in TweakUI.
http://www.annoyance...ec/show/tweakui

Don't know if it will work for this problem, though.

Johanna

[mdog17]

Shell.dll is also present in my windows folder.

I tried changing icons manually again and the file extension that seems to be missing is "%SystemRoot%\Installer\{bunch of hexadecimal numbers}\infodev.exe"

The last part (infodev.exe) is specific to the program icon im trying to change. Like for another program its (DellNetGuide.exe).

Does this help at all?

Thanx

[darth_ash]

In post#1, you told that you got an error saying that a certain shell file was missing. Thats why I was trying to find out the missing file.
Since its not shell32.dll or shell.dll it just leaves out shellstyle.dll, follow the steps in my previosu post to get a new shellstyle.dll.
If shellstyle.dll is also present in c:\Windows\System32 like the rest of the aforementioned "shell" files, then follow Czarina's advise in Post#8.

Edited by darth_ash, 01 September 2005 - 02:06 PM.

[mdog17]

Shellstyles.dll is also present in Windows/System32.

At first when I tried to change the icons manually it did say that a shell file was missing, and when I did it again last night, it said that that file from SystemRoot was missing.

I have tried the TweakUI to repair the icons but that has not worked either,

Thanks

[mpy]

Did you try re-installing the programs?

[Armblessed]

Thanks for this thread!

I encountered the same problem this morning and it was fixed very quickly with the 'Repar Icon' feature of TweakUI.

Yes it was the easy way but it worked

Thanks again!